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Last week I was on a field when I was confronted by 3 Sheriffs. I was arrested for tresspassing and taken to the County Jail. They told me that the mushrooms I was caught with were going to be analyzed by a lab and if they come back as positive for Psilocybin, that I will be charged with a felony. Anyone else been in this situation? How should I handle this? I really can't afford an attorney, but I've been doing some research online and am considering defending myself. I live in Florida. I think that I might plead guilty to the tresspassing charge (which is a misdemeanor offense), but plead not guilty to the possession of mushrooms charge (felony). I could argue that I had no criminal intentions... that I had no idea that the mushrooms were illegal. your thoughts?

Damn. That really sucks man. Saturday night I got busted with 19 hits of LSD and paraphenilia. Get a good lawyer if you can. Mine said he can get everything dropped, but the court is most likely going to slam me with intent to sell. I could be looking at 3-5 years. Luckily, my lawyer said he can most likely get me out of it. I have read that if the mushrooms were fresh, than you can say you had no idea what you were picking. Dry is a different story. I'm not sure if it will work in florida. I wish you the best of luck dude. Don't let those fuckers stop you.

Hope you didn't say anything to them on the scene. Exercise your right to remain silent! If you did they will use this against you, but only what you said after they read your rights can be used. For all they know you may have been an amature mushroom hunter looking for mushrooms to put in your spagetti! What those were psycoactive? I am glad you got me before I actually ate those Thank you so much officers. Consulting an attorny would probably be benificial too. Judges don't like to be lied to so I hope you can keep a straight face, like a lawyer would! You will have to sell your story to the judge, kinda like selling cars. Just remeber that not everyone buys a car from the first person they see. Lawyers are the best salesmen ever.

Peace ignuF

--------------------All the above information is for microscopic research only!

Life is short so make a dent in the world so people can tell you were here!

If you plan to try the "I didn't know that was illegal" bit, try it on the DA, not the judge. The judge will respond with something like "ignorance of the law is not excuse". The one person you don't want to piss off is the judge, and any excuse you can think up they've heard a thousand times and won't be happy hearing again.

Get an attorney. If you don't have the money, say so and they will have to appoint a public defender. Talk with your attorney in detail before you say anything to the police or DA. Let your attorney do the talking, that's why they make the big, big money.

Look...dude.........do not jump into this with head in sand..........you will need................an atorney...............i will be your atorney..............give me small amount of drugs/money........................you are in luck....................

If i were in your shoes i would argue this one all the way. Say you are a student of mycology and you were out doing field work. THe mushrooms which you were gathering were strickly for educational purposes. That is way fucked up to think you could be charged a felony for that. Florida is all screwed up tho, we know that much. Hahaha if anyone saw the daily show a few nights ago i think we should look seriously into john stewart idea of letting that state go, they can join up with cuba then you wont get hassled for such things.

i agree with cardboard, argue it all the way, dont let them know you are lieing in anyway. Hae your story worked out in every angle. You shoule probably at least visit a lawyer and run the story by them.

Was the feild clearly posted NO TRESSPASSING in plain sight about every 250 feet along it's perimeter? Law generaly requires that for such a charge to be enforced.

Second.

Was the feild fully FENCED all along it's perimeter?

Meaning, you could have just wandered in.

Third. Were there any open path's, gates or entrances to the feild?

Meanig - there was no evidence that you were tresspassing.

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The reason for all those questions is; generaly -- a person CANNOT be charged with tresspass, IF -- A. the area was not properly posted; B; was open to entry by any unobstruced -- unposted route.

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Fourth. Are you positive any mushrooms you had in your possession -- that were confiscated -- were in fact -- P.C?

Fifth. How much weight were they?

Sixth. If the weight was very small -- most evidence bags are PLASTIC & sealed tight. Meaning, the shrooms may well spoil into rotten GOO. So, any test - done days or weeks later -- may well -- be -- worthless -- as evidence.

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You can appear in court at arraignment & plead poverty. The court must appoint you a public defender, if you cannot afford an attorney.

Don't plead to ANYTHING -- without advise from a lawyer. Take your time, consider all options & this may all just go away, if the cops screw up the charge or evidence.

6T

After thought edit.

If they charge YOU. Naturaly, you would insist -- they also charge the LAND OWNER for possesion of P.C. (contolled substance). Because, it -- they were on his land.

The police are bullshiting you about sending the mushrooms to the lab. They got you on trespassing, of which is only a mistameanor i believe, unless you were charged for trespassing on a construction site, then that would be a felony.

They arrested you for trespassing, and with the added information on the police report about the mushrooms, that leaves extra information for the judge to read and consider. But the possession of fresh Psilocybe mushrooms is still in a sense not illegal in our state, Fiske vs. the State of Florida 1978. You may want to go to your courthouses legal library and dig that up and get it xeroxed a few times.-Fiske vs. the State of Florida is however only a valid defense unless during the arrest you gave the police no information that you were out looking for Psilocybe mushrooms and not looking for any Edibles.

Either way, i think that the person you should tell your story to is cowboy@jug-or-not.com, at the North Florida Shroom Guide. He has plenty of legal experience with the mushroom law here in Florida and they are real roughnecks when it comes to defending Shroomers over the Fiske-Law.

Good luck man, Stay outta trouble, GG

Oh and depending on what county it is you are in (Collier was it?) - You may be propositioned with the "opportunity" of becomeing a "client" in a "drug court program". If you go through their drug court program for 8-12 months then they will dispell the trespassing charge against you. Think long and hard about going into these programs as they usually end up costing more money than it would have been to get a good lawyer.

It is legal in Florida to possess wet psychoactive mushrooms. As long as you stayed quiet with the officer, you should be fine. Trespassing, though, may be on your record. I would follow GGs advice. Were you there during the day?

There has been some major hype in recent years surrounding the Shroom laws,Somewhere along the way the judges and public attorneys to the police officers got it stuck in their heads that you can arrest a Shroomer with a bag full of mushrooms by claiming that;1- The mushrooms are suspected to be laced with LSDor 2- Possession of Psilocybian mushrooms are now sceduled to be a felony of the third degree (equal to that of LSD).

It is all purly speculative for me and also the folks at the NFLSG & The Shroom_Wizard Mushroom Travel Agent site, but we believe that these two claims were brought about as to be an intimidation factor, As to make the Shroomer feel scared and feel as if maybe they were actually doing something bad or breaking the law.

When really the only law that has been broken by the Florida Shroomer was the act of trespassing on the posted land. Trespassing is their reason, but the Shrooms are a secondary kind of reason, for the kids parents to invest into a good lawyer, with that type of investment (lawyer) you feed the system basically the way they want, it makes it so that the lawyer has at least one thing to get his client off of (the suspected mushroom charge). If he was only arrested under the intentions that he was trespassing then that leaves no room for reason of getting a lawyer, because the lawyer won't be able to do anything..he was totally busted and caught trespassing, the lawyer can't really do anything about that. Does that make sense?

If anyone takes a good look at alot of the new trespassing signs in front of fields, many of them also state a $500.00 reward to anyone whom helps tip off the police or land owners on catching a trespasser. In this instance, damnfunkypro had had a few problems already with some big fat ugly redneck lady screaming at him to get off her property or else she will call the cops.

They are not going to charge him for a third degree felony drug possession charge, because that law simply does not excist here when it comes to magic mushrooms. But, this is Florida's judicial system we are talking about, so the judge will not give it a second thought that the mushrooms were or were not psychoactive. The judge will just know that he got busted with a bag of mushrooms in his hand and take that into consideration, maybe even (if he wants to fuck with damnfunkypro) he will ask a few tricky questions that will instill fear into him about the damn mushrooms. Drug Court is known to have co-orsed their share of Shroomers in their programs due to the fact that they make it seem like they have no other option than to attend their program or risk having this felony charge on their record for the rest of their life.Drug Court however is essentially in comparison to a slaughter house. The cows do not resist and just line up one after another to be slaughtered. It is a money driven system driven on the drug habits of people that are arrested for various drug and alcohol arrests. The mandatory testing and couseling and payments must all be made on time for the 8-12 or else they will keep you in the program for even longer, costing even more and eventually having screwed up too many times, then they throw your ass back into the real judicial system with a whole new load of problems and bullshit that you will be up against.

I'm almost sure they were just trying to intimidate you when they said they would send the mushrooms to a lab, for the reason that it takes time and money to extract the active ingredients and put it in a mass spectrometer for analyses.. (See my post in general discussion). And even if they did send it off, deny that you knew what kind of mushroom it was, tell them that you were just collecting mushrooms from the field randomly, and were going to identify then when you got home... Also see that fiske vs florida link, its usefull, especially in your case..

For others -

Don't admit to being a mushroom hunter with intent to find psychadelic (sp?) mushrooms, stay quiet, don't say anything, and don't let them intimidate you. Cops are dirty lying bastards that say anything to intimidate you or lie to you in order for you to slip up and say something you shouldn't... If you're ever confronted in a field by police, don't run, just be quiet, that way it's more likely that they would believe you werent looking for those types of shrooms...

But if you a teenager like me, your basically screwed, so by all means, run like the wind. If your lucky, you took your dirtbike and theres no way in hell they can keep up with you on those dirt roads... run fatass run!.. lol

--------------------Everything posted above was out of fun, none should be taken serious. I am currently under the influence so take that into consideration.